POLITICS: Was Yasser Arafat Poisoned???

LAST year the annual memorial for Yasser Arafat, Palestine’s first president and founding father, was a wash-out. Bad weather deterred more than 200 loyalists from gathering at his graveside in Ramallah, the Palestinians’ seat of government in the West Bank, the core of their hoped-for state. Now a leaked 108-page Swiss report suggesting that Mr Arafat may have been poisoned with Polonium-210, a radioactive substance, could stir Palestinians into demonstrating in numbers rarely seen since their leader’s death at the height of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israeli rule in 2004.

The Palestinian Authority (PA), led by Mr Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, has generally played down suggestions that Arafat was poisoned. Semi-official Palestinian media consigned news of the leaks to the lower half of their bulletins. The only notable dissenter was an anonymous “senior official” who called for an international inquiry. Some speculated that the PA was waiting for the official publication of the Swiss report before issuing an opinion.

The PA’s hesitancy has been due, among other things, to lack of hard evidence. Scientists at the Institute for Radiation Physics at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, who wrote the recent report after examining samples of Arafat’s exhumed remains and possessions, say the results only “moderately support” the proposition he was poisoned.

In any event, whether or not Arafat was poisoned, arguments will persist over who might have been responsible. Israel and rivals within the PA have variously been blamed, though many people will continue to think that Arafat, who had been in poor health for many years, died of natural causes.

The report was leaked to Al Jazeera, a Qatari satellite channel which the PA deems hostile. Arafat’s widow, Suha, who lives in France, has had a long-running feud with senior people in the PA. After the Swiss report came out, she said it vindicated her claim that her husband had been assassinated, though she refrained from saying by whom. Israeli officials have always denied any involvement.

Western governments maylean on the PA to refrain from endorsing claimsthat Israel was responsible for Arafat’s death, since that might further sour relations between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators just as they are trying to negotiate a peace deal under the aegis of America. Mr Abbas’s presidency, already under criticism from within the PA, may also weakened were it to be proved that he came to power as a result of Arafat being assassinated.